This recording of an OK2Ask online professional development session from July 2016, opens in Adobe Connect. Zombies at Your Door? Survive the Horde with Your Google Bug-Out Bag. In this fast-paced session, participants will take part in a model lesson designed to add a narrative context to formative assessment. Learn to "set the scene" while integrating technology in the lesson. Both you and your students will enjoy this twist on assessment and feedback. As a result of this session and through individual follow-up, teachers will: 1. Learn to use a narrative to frame formative assessment; and 2. Create a sample formative assessment for use in their classroom. Remember, it is OK2Ask''® questions at any time! This session is appropriate for teachers at all technology levels.

In the Classroom

The archive of this teacher-friendly, hands-on webinar will empower and inspire you to use learning technology in the classroom and for professional productivity. As appropriate, specific classroom examples and ideas have been shared. View the session with a few of your teaching colleagues to find and share new ideas. Find additional information and links to tools at the session resource page. Learn more about OK2Ask and upcoming sessions here.

This recording of an OK2Ask online professional development session from July 2016, opens in Adobe Connect. Explore the hidden treasure that is Google Draw. Don't let its simplicity fool you, there are many things hidden in this versatile tool. In this session, participants will learn how to navigate through Google Draw to make engaging lesson, interactive graphic organizers, exciting assignments and much more. With the amazing sharing abilities within Google, it is easy to get the information out to students and colleagues to work towards a more paperless classroom. As a result of this session and through individual follow-up, teachers will: 1. Learn the basics of creating in Google Draw; 2. Explore examples of ways to integrate Google Draw into the classroom; and 3. Create a Google Drawing that you can use. Remember, it is OK2Ask'® questions at any time! This session is appropriate for teachers at all technology levels.

In the Classroom

The archive of this teacher-friendly, hands-on webinar will empower and inspire you to use learning technology in the classroom and for professional productivity. As appropriate, specific classroom examples and ideas have been shared. View the session with a few of your teaching colleagues to find and share new ideas. Find additional information and links to tools at the session resource page. Learn more about OK2Ask and upcoming sessions here.

This recording of an OK2Ask online professional development session from July 2016, opens in Adobe Connect. Participants will have time to explore maps and discover ways they can be implemented into classrooms with students of all ages. As a result of this session and through individual follow-up, teachers will: 1. Explore the difference between Google Maps and its features; 2. Learn about Google My Maps' uses in education; 3. Explore other products from Google Maps; and 4. Plan a way to incorporate maps into an upcoming lesson. Remember, it is OK2Ask'® questions at any time! This session is appropriate for teachers at all technology levels.

In the Classroom

The archive of this teacher-friendly, hands-on webinar will empower and inspire you to use learning technology in the classroom and for professional productivity. As appropriate, specific classroom examples and ideas have been shared. View the session with a few of your teaching colleagues to find and share new ideas. Find additional information and links to tools at the session resource page. Learn more about OK2Ask and upcoming sessions here.

This recording of an OK2Ask online professional development session from July 2016, opens in Adobe Connect. No time to comb through Chrome's content? Learn about Google Chrome's accessibility features and extensions to best meet you and your students' needs. Google Chrome is the "Magician's Hat" of content built-in the browser. Google Chrome was named because the developer liked fast, and shiny cars. However, the design philosophy was content and not chrome. Chrome has features that are designed for efficiency and ease of use. Chrome is the luxury browser of the web, and it's dashboard rivals that of a luxury car. Explore the Chrome Web Store to learn features and extensions to support and enrich your student's online experience. As a result of this session and through individual follow-up, teachers will: 1. Learn how to locate accessibility features and extensions; 2. Learn how to integrate extensions to best meet your students' needs; 3. Learn extensions and features to support your Google Chrome experience; and 4. Collect extensions to use in your classroom. Remember, it is OK2Ask'® questions at any time! This session is appropriate for teachers at all technology levels.

In the Classroom

The archive of this teacher-friendly, hands-on webinar will empower and inspire you to use learning technology in the classroom and for professional productivity. As appropriate, specific classroom examples and ideas have been shared. View the session with a few of your teaching colleagues to find and share new ideas. Find additional information and links to tools at the session resource page. Learn more about OK2Ask and upcoming sessions here.

This recording of an OK2Ask online professional development session from July 2016, opens in Adobe Connect. Go to the EDGE with TeachersFirst! What is the Edge? Cutting edge tools used to create: list-makers, timelines, mind maps, and more. Learn about the various Edge categories and what they mean. Have time to explore the Edge on your own. Find inspiration and timesaving tools in this fast-paced session! As a result of this session and through individual follow-up, teachers will: Explore the edge categories and tools available at TeachersFirst. Find more ways to save time using TeachersFirst for planning lessons. Have free exploration time to find materials relevant to his/her classroom needs. Prepare to plan and implement a student-centered, curriculum-related use of the resource(s) of choice as part of an upcoming teaching unit. Plan how to use one of the edge tools to organize, communicate, or create in your classroom. Remember, it is OK2Ask'® questions at any time! This session is appropriate for teachers at all technology levels.

In the Classroom

The archive of this teacher-friendly, hands-on webinar will empower and inspire you to use learning technology in the classroom and for professional productivity. As appropriate, specific classroom examples and ideas have been shared. View the session with a few of your teaching colleagues to find and share new ideas. Find additional information and links to tools at the session resource page. Learn more about OK2Ask and upcoming sessions here.

This recording of an OK2Ask online professional development session from July 2016, opens in Adobe Connect. Explore three online tools that will help you with formative assessment. Understand the three steps in the formative assessment feedback loop. Discuss and learn ways to use formative assessment to increase gains in student learning. Use exploration time to discover and discuss how selected resources can be utilized in your classroom. A question/answer period will be available to help with individual questions. As a result of this session and through individual follow-up, participants will: (1) Understand the three steps in the formative assessment feedback loop to support learning gains; (2) Explore and evaluate the three online tools for formative assessment; (3) Find ways to use formative assessment to increase targeted feedback; (4) Discover ways to set goals to meet targeted learning goals; and (5) Make detailed plans for including formative assessments in daily lessons. Have free exploration time for finding ways to integrate these tools into your curriculum. This session is for teachers at ALL technology comfort levels. Remember, it is OK2Ask'® questions at any time!

In the Classroom

The archive of this teacher-friendly, hands-on webinar will empower and inspire you to use learning technology in the classroom and for professional productivity. As appropriate, specific classroom examples and ideas have been shared. View the session with a few of your teaching colleagues to find and share new ideas. Find additional information and links to tools at the session resource page. Learn more about OK2Ask and upcoming sessions here.

This recording of an OK2Ask online professional development session from July 2016, opens in Adobe Connect. Explore the teacher-friendly features of TeachersFirst to help you save time in developing technology-infused lessons. Participants will learn new strategies to incorporate the tools of the web successfully into any classroom. As a result of this session participants will:
(1) Locate resources within TeachersFirst to provide real-world learning experiences for their students; (2) Locate and evaluate effective, web-based tools and resources in support of teaching and learning, both for themselves and for their students; (3) Evaluate TeachersFirst membership features applicable to their individual technology expertise and teaching situation; (4) Find solutions to individual questions or practical problems of their teaching situation by exploring TeachersFirst and/or asking live questions during the session; and (5) Plan to use the features of TeachersFirst's value-added reviews to plan technology-infused lessons. Remember, it's OK2Ask'®. This session is for teachers at ALL technology comfort levels.

In the Classroom

The archive of this teacher-friendly, hands-on webinar will empower and inspire you to use learning technology in the classroom and for professional productivity. As appropriate, specific classroom examples and ideas have been shared. View the session with a few of your teaching colleagues to find and share new ideas. Find additional information and links to tools at the session resource page. Learn more about OK2Ask and upcoming sessions here.

Gojimo is a quiz-taking app (and online site) for high school English, math, science, geography, and more. Although created for British students, quizzes are suitable for students in any country. Choose "Study Online" to begin using Gojimo on your computer or device, then choose a topic. Immediate feedback is provided to let you know if answers are correct. Each question also includes a short explanation of the topic. There is no registration to take quizzes; however, to save them and have your Gojimo results on any device, registration is necessary.

In the Classroom

Share Gojimo with students for review and study of all subjects. Use this site as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce a unit or lesson on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Use to find a question of the day to begin lessons.

TRAILS is a free online, interactive student assessment using multiple-choice questions on a variety of information literacy skills based on 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 12th grade standards. This easy, flexible tool is for school librarians and teachers to identify strengths and weaknesses in the information-seeking skills of their students. TRAILS can be used for formative and summative evaluations in five category areas: Develop Topic, Identify Potential Sources, Use Search Strategies, Evaluate Sources and Information, Use Information Responsibly, Ethically, and Legally.

In the Classroom

Students can be evaluated in four separate grade-level tests. You must create accounts and new sessions to save student work and have it graded. Individual codes are assigned to students allowing teachers and students to review performance and teachers to generate reports. Questions have been aligned to the Common Core standards.

Designed as an interactive online course this site helps high school students develop the sophisticated research skills needed for college and careers, an important component of most standards. The formal research process is broken down into six steps: Ask Good Questions, Finding Information, Selecting the Best, Putting It Together, Your Presentation, and Making the Grade. Students work through a variety of activities linked from outside sites, including reading articles, watching videos, and completing worksheets. Each module is introduced by Voki avatars, reviewed here. Several popular research tools, such Zotero, reviewed here, and Evernote, reviewed here, are introduced. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable. You could always view them at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.

In the Classroom

R4S would be perfect for use as a blended-learning or the flipped classroom experience for upper high school into the first year of college. You can have students work online, or you can download into your course management system. Have students work through all the steps as part of a research assignment, or use only the parts relevant to them. Teachers need to register to receive the text copy of the helpful teacher's guide. Use the site in any subject or curriculum area.

What Do We Do All Day? is a blog created by a stay-at-home mom and is packed full of learning activities and resources for children. Choose the Kids Activities link to find ideas sorted by kitchen learning, outdoors, math, science, and more. There is also an extensive book list sorted into categories with a short synopsis of each book. A few of the videos are hosted on YouTube, but most are not. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable. You could always view the videos at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Bookmark and save this blog to find many ideas for classroom use. Take advantage of the free ideas and printables offered for projects across the curriculum. Browse through the many book lists for additions to your class library. Take pictures of classroom finished projects, then use Ourboox, reviewed here. Ourboox creates beautiful page-flipping digital books in minutes, and you can embed video, music, animation, games, maps and more.

Create personalized crossword puzzles to embed on your blog or website with this easy puzzle creator. View the help for the directions and examples. It is as simple as typing a question on each line followed by an asterisk, then the correct answer. When complete, submit to view your puzzle online and choose from different options for sharing. Also, you can download puzzles as PDF documents.

In the Classroom

Create puzzles for any subject or topic for review or introduction to new materials. Allow students to create puzzles for other students to solve. Add a puzzle to the classroom newsletter or blog to create interest. Share puzzles on an interactive whiteboard for students to solve together.

In the Classroom

Share the Writing Cheat Sheet with students before beginning a writing project, include a link on your class website for easy reference. Have students use this as a model for creating their tips for getting the most out of any writing project. Brainstorm or collect ideas on a collaborative bulletin board using an online poster creator, such as Padlet, reviewed here, for you and your students to make your own posters for writing suggestions.

Learn the basics about scholarships through this informative infographic and supporting information. Discover facts such as the number of scholarships distributed annually (of course, this changes each year), where the money comes from, and little-known scholarship offerings. Click on the infographic image to open the full version in a new tab for easier viewing

In the Classroom

Embed this infographic on your class website as a resource for students and parents as they apply for scholarships and learn about resources available. Share with your school's guidance counselor to share with students.

This recording of an OK2Ask online professional development session from June 2016, opens in Adobe Connect. Excite and engage students to jump into learning with tech tools to support direct instruction for vocabulary. Increase the vocabulary in all subjects areas using direct instruction based on Marzano strategies to increase success in school and on achievement tests. Increased vocabulary deepens background knowledge providing a better schemata for different learning experiences. Using the six step approach, discover tech tools to bring the vocabulary from short term memory into long term memory. Discover how the tech tools chosen, can be used to increase student collaboration and provide data for formative assessments. Participants will: 1. Review Marzano's strategies for vocabulary instruction; 2. Explore tools for vocabulary instruction; 3. Learn strategies for student collaboration during vocabulary instruction; and 4. Understand how to create formative assessments for vocabulary using tech tools This session is appropriate for teachers at all technology levels.

In the Classroom

The archive of this teacher-friendly, hands-on webinar will empower and inspire you to use learning technology in the classroom and for professional productivity. As appropriate, specific classroom examples and ideas have been shared. View the session with a few of your teaching colleagues to find and share new ideas. Find additional information and links to tools at the session resource page. Learn more about OK2Ask and upcoming sessions here.

Teachers can create and deliver classroom content online with this free, easy-to-use web application. As a teacher, staying organized can be a challenge. Keep all of your units and lesson plans in one place with Cloudschool. Students can access course content at any time via URL on any device without logging in. After creating an account, design courses with individual lessons using content you select and upload based on school standards. Add lessons, homework, assignments, even embed Google Docs and other content; then "publish" some, or all of the content. Your account is a personal education website called a Teaching Space whose URL you share with others. After logging in, use the Dashboard to navigate and easily manage all your Courses and Lessons. Mark courses with a tag so they will come up for anybody who visits your Teaching Space, or password protect your Lessons. Share with other teachers or students by sending Lessons and Courses via email. Download lessons as Word docs. Students can only interact via class discussions you set up and monitor in the lessons. As a simple learning management system, Cloudschool facilitates delivery of curricular content, and keeps you organized with your lessons and units. Find them easily next year! While free for individuals, there is a charge for institutions.

In the Classroom

Watch the short videos on the landing page to see how Cloudschool works; once signed up, you will have access to the very complete Help section. Within each course, create and distribute text-based or multimedia lessons containing a variety of formats which may be embedded, including audio, video, PDFs, and worksheets. Add discussion questions to all Lessons for students to reply to within your course environment. Use toolbars at the top as main controls for each page for easy navigation and creation. The left-side navigation menu links to Courses, Lessons, Curriculum Lists, and Files. Helpful tips appear by hovering over buttons. Click into a Course to add a new Lesson, then choose a Template, or use the Create New Lesson button. A Plus button at the top center of the page adds text, images, audio, and video to your lesson. Include homework, student discussion, assignments, and assessments which students submit outside of the Cloudschool environment. Notifications are available. After creating lessons, use your Teaching Space to give large or small group in-class presentations. Consider putting a bookmark on classroom computers to the lesson the students are to work on. You could also share the lessons on your class website. Share lesson plans with colleagues and administrators. Cloudschool is useful for any teacher to organize content and deliver it easily to individual students in class or at home as part of blended or flipped classroom environments. No classroom management tools are available since students do not register.

Knowledge Maps provides a resource for community problem solving. Sign up using Gmail or FaceBook. First-time members are asked to choose a map. An introduction wizard will then come up and walk you through how to use Knowledge Maps, or you can decide to skip the intro. Then, start a map by posing a question or problem and invite friends and other community members to recommend resources. After receiving and reviewing resources, share with others as part of the Knowledge Maps community.

In the Classroom

Knowledge Maps is an excellent way to narrow down resources for class projects and research taking away the overwhelming nature of Google searches. Create a Knowledge Map for students to share their favorite website for interpreting literature, finding solutions to math problems, or locating pictures for use in multimedia projects. Ask students to create a Knowledge Map that includes resources used on class projects. Create a Knowledge Map to embed on your class website with suggested books for reading. Use this site professionally to curate and share resources with coworkers. The ideas for using this tool are endless!

Create multimedia and interactive ebooks that work on tablets and computers for free with ePubEditor. Create your account to begin, then follow prompts to upload images and text with optional image, video, or audio. Other options allow you to create quizzes with different responses such as multiple choice, matching, or drag and drop response. Allow others to edit and add to your book using the share editing option. When complete, publish and share your book using the created URL or download in different formatting options including epub and PDF.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Create books together as a class as you move through a unit or topic, adding images and ideas your students suggest. Use in a flipped classroom to deliver course information. Assign several student groups a different topic and have each group create their own multimedia versions as they learn more about the topic. Make a digital bookshelf of all the versions for all to use. Challenge your gifted students to enhance the "standard" class text with additional material they discover by going deeper and learning about related topics. In lower grades, create teacher-made ebooks for your young readers, perhaps adding audio of your own voice reading the text.

Votesy is a crowdsourcing voting platform. Quickly create a poll by text, video, or image to receive votes or comments. Create private or public polls or limit questions to certain demographics such as location or gender. Register for a free account and follow the simple prompts to create a survey. Choose from many options to personalize the poll such as allowing voters to change their mind, setting a deadline, or allowing others to add answer choices. Once finished, share your poll with social media links, URL, or embed into your website.

In the Classroom

Share polls on a projector or interactive whiteboard to discuss and informally assess prior knowledge as you start a new unit, asking questions about the material. Discuss in groups why students would choose a particular answer to uncover misconceptions. Use for daily quiz questions to check student understanding as a means of formative assessment. Use a class account to have student groups alternate to create a new poll for the next day. Place a survey on your teacher web page as a homework inspiration or to ask questions to increase parent involvement. Older students may want to include polls on their student blogs to increase reader involvement. Have students create polls to use at the start of project presentations. Use surveys to generate data for math class (graphing), during elections, or for critical thinking activities dealing with the interpretation of statistics. Use "real" data to engage students on issues and current events that matter to them.

Symbaloo, reviewed here, has taken its popular bookmarking tool and enhanced features to provide a platform for creating virtual interactive lesson plans and learning paths. Log in to your Symbaloo account and browse the Marketplace for already created lessons, or begin creating your own. Add websites, PDF's, videos, and more onto tiles and create a game board and learning path. Follow prompts to add items to the lesson and publish when complete. Symbaloo Lesson Plans & Learning Paths also provides analytics after assigning lessons to view student progress and a calendar option to make lessons available during a chosen time frame.

In the Classroom

You will want to use Symbaloo Lesson Plan & Learning Paths for many different types of classroom instruction! Create lesson plans to differentiate learning and assign based on student needs and interests. Embed a lesson on your class website for students to complete at home. Using this site allows you to create a clear and concise learning path for any lesson. Share it on an interactive whiteboard with students as you follow through any learning path. Be sure also to include a link to the lesson on your class website for students to use throughout the unit and as a review. Use Symbaloo Lesson Plans as enrichment for independent learning for advanced students, or for remediation with students needing additional help. This site is perfect for use with ESL/ELL students - include links and activities to resources in their native language or add tools for practicing English. There are too many uses for Symbaloo Lesson Plans to include here, be sure to take the time to learn how to create and use this wonderful tool with your students!